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Nurit Gronau, Associate Professor

Prof. Nurit Gronau
Contact Info

The Open University of Israel Psychology Department One University Road, P.O.B. 808 Ra’anana 4353701, Israel
Office:972-9-778-1468 Fax:972-9-778-0632 Email:nuritgro@openu.ac.il

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1998 – 2004
Ph.D., Cognitive Psychology, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
1995 – 1997
M.A. (magna cum laude), Neuropsychology, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
1992 – 1994
B.A. (magna cum laude), Psychology & Musicology, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
2017-present
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and Education, The Open University of Israel.
2010-2016
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology and Education, The Open University of Israel.
2008-2009
Visiting faculty member lecturer, Department of Psychology and Education, The Open University of Israel.
2004-2007
Post-doctoral fellow, Harvard Medical School and Martinos Center for Neuroimaging at Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA

2015 – 2020

Vision at a glance: the role of perceptual, conceptual, and task-relevant factors in stimulus Competition.
The Israel Science Foundation (ISF).

2011 – 2015

Effects of attention and visual context on perception and memory of real-world Objects.
The Israel Science Foundation (ISF).

2009 – 2011

The role of global contextual factors in visual object perception.
Young Investigator Research Grant, The National Institute for Psychobiology in Israel.

2009 – 2010

Contextual and functional associations reduce competition between unattended objects.
The Open University Research Fund.

2004 – 2005
Fulbright Grant for Post-Doctoral studies
2004 – 2005
Hebrew University Fellowship for Post-Doctoral studies
2000 – 2003
Rector Excellency Fellowship for PhD
1996
Rector Prize for M.A.
1995 – 1996
Psychology Department Excellency Scholarship for M.A.
1992 – 1994
Dean's list

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Gronau, N., Nartker, M., Yakim, S., Utochkin, I., & Wolfe, J.  (2024). Categorically distinct subsets allow flexible memory-selection in hybrid search. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.

Sahar, T., Gronau, N., & Makovski, T. (2024). Semantic Meaning Enhances Feature-Binding but not Quantity or Precision of Locations in Visual Working Memory. Memory & Cognition.

Shoval, R., Gronau, N,. Sidi ,Y & Makovski, T. (2023)  Objects’ perceived meaningfulness predicts both subjective memorability judgments and actual memory performance, Visual Cognition, DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2023.2288433

Shafran - Aisenberg. D,. Henik , A & Gronau, N (2023)  Observing ageism implicitly using the numerical parity judgment task.  Scientific Reports, 13, 21195. . DOI 10.1038/s41598-023-40876-1

Shoval, R., Gronau, N., & Makovski, T. (2023). Massive Visual Long-Term Memory is Largely Dependent on Meaning.‏ 
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (early online publication)https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-022-02193-y

Gronau, N. (2021). To Grasp the World at a Glance: The Role of Attention in Visual and Semantic Associative Processing. Journal of Imaging, 7, 191. https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging7090191

Avital-Cohen, R. & Gronau, N. (2021). The asymmetric mixed-category advantage in visual working memory: An attentional, not perceptual (face-specific) account. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 47(6), 852-868. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000921  

Gronau, N., (2020). Vision at a glance: the role of attention in processing object-to-object categorical relations. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 82, 671-688. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-019-01940-z

Nussinson, R., Elias, Y., Mentser, S., Bar-Anan, Y., & Gronau, N. (2019). Bi-directional effects of stimulus verticality and its construal level. Social Psychology, 50, 162-173. doi: https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000371

Gronau, N (2017). The evolvement of discrete representations from continuous stimulus properties: a possible overarching principle of cognition. Commentary on “From ‘sense of number’ to ‘sense of magnitude’ – The role of continuous magnitudes in numerical cognition”, Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 40. doi:10.1017/S0140525X16002314.​

Delhaye, E., Tibon, R., Gronau, N., Levy, D., & Bastin, C. (2017). Misrecollection prevents older adults from benefitting from semantic relatedness of the memoranda in associative memory. Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition. DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2017.1358351 

Gronau, N., and Izoutcheev, A. (2017).  The necessity of visual attention to scene categorization: dissociating ‘task-relevant’ and ‘task-irrelevant’ scene distractors. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000365

Gronau, N., Izoutcheev, A., Nave, T., & Henik, A. (2017). Counting distance: effects of egocentric distance on numerical perception. Plos ONE, 12(4): e0174772. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0174772.

Bridger, E.K., Kursawe, A., Bader, R., Tibon, R., Gronau, N., Levy, D.L, & Mecklinger, A. (2017). Age effects on associative memory for novel picture pairings. Brain Research, 1664,102 115, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2017.03.031

Gabay, S., Kalanthroff, E., Henik, A., & Gronau, N. (2016). Conceptual size representation in ventral visual cortex. Neuropsychologia, 81, 198–206 . http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.12.029

Gronau, N., & Shachar, M. (2015). Contextual Consistency Facilitates Long-Term Memory of Perceptual Detail in Barely Seen Images. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 41(4), 1095–1111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000071

Gronau, N., Elber, L., Satran, S., Breska, A., & Ben-Shakhar, G. (2015). Retroactive memory interference: A potential countermeasure technique against  psychophysiological knowledge detection methods. Biological Psychology, 106, 68-78.doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2015.02.002.

Tibon, R., Gronau, N., Scheuplein, AL., Mecklinger, A., & Levy, D (2014). Associative recognition processes are modulated by the semantic unitizability of memoranda. Brain and Cognition, 92, 19–31.

Gronau, N. & Shachar, M. Contextual Integration of Visual Objects Necessitates Attention (2014). Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 76(3), 695-714, DOI: 10.3758/s13414-013-0617-8.

Breska, A., Zaidenberg, D., Gronau, N., & Ben-Shakhar, G. (2014). Psychophysiological detection of concealed information shared by groups: An empirical study of the searching CIT. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 20(2), 136–146. DOI: 10.1037/xap0000015.

Gabay, S., Leibovich, T., Henik, A., & Gronau, N. (2013). Size before Numbers: Conceptual Size Primes Numerical Value. Cognition, 129 (1), 18-23.

Breska, A., Ben-Shakhar, G., & Gronau, N. (2012). Searching for unknown concealed information: Algorithms for the detection of concealed knowledge among groups when the critical information is not available. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 18(3), 292-300.

Gronau, N., Cohen, A., & Ben-Shakhar, G. (2009). Distractor interference in focused attention tasks is not mediated by attention capture. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62(9), 1685-1695.

Meijer, E.H., Verschuere, B., Vrij, A., Merckelbach, H., Smulders, F., Leal, S., Ben-Shakhar, G., Granhag, P.A., Gamer, M., Gronau, N., Vossel, G., Crombez, G., & Spence, S. (2009). A call for evidence-based security tools. Open Access Journal of Forensic Psychology, 1, 1-4.

Gronau, N., Neta, M., & Bar, M. (2008). Integrated contextual representation for objects’ identities and their locations. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20(3), 371–388.

Aminoff, E., Gronau, N., & Bar, M. (2007).  The parahippocampal cortex mediates spatial and non-spatial associations. Cerebral Cortex, 27, 1493-1503.

Gronau, N., Sequerra, E., Cohen, A., & Ben-Shakhar, G. (2006). The effect of novel distractors on focused-attention tasks: A cognitive-psychophysiological approach. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 13(4), 570-575.

Fenske, M.J., Aminoff, E., Gronau, N., & Bar, M. (2006). Top-down facilitation of visual object recognition: Object-based and context-based contributions.  Progress in Brain Research, 155, 3-21.

Gronau, N., Ben-Shakhar, G., & Cohen, A. (2005). Behavioral and physiological measures in the detection of concealed information. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(1), 147-158.

Gronau, N., Cohen, A., & Ben-Shakhar, G. (2003). Dissociations of personally-significant and task-relevant distractors inside and outside the focus of attention: A combined behavioral and psychophysiological study. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 132(4), 512–529.

Ben-Shakhar, G., Gronau, N., & Elaad, E. (1999). Leakage of relevant information to innocent examinees in the GKT: an attempt to reduce false-positive outcomes by introducing target stimuli. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84(5), 651-660. 

Gronau, N. & Frost, R. (1997). Prelexical phonologic computation in deep orthography: Evidence from backward masking in Hebrew. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 4(1), 107.

Gronau N. (2015). Brain and Cognition, a Student's Guide (2nd Edition). The Open University of Israel, Raanana (in Hebrew).

Zakai, D. & Gronau, N. (2010). Cognitive Psychology (Part II): Perception and Cognitive Neuropsychology, The Open University of Israel, Raanana (in Hebrew).

Gronau, N., Hariston, I., Lavie, R., & Raanan, Z. (1998). Foundations of Behavioral Neuroscience. Text for CD-ROM directed by U. Hasson & Y. Shavit, The Open University of Israel, Tel-Aviv.

Fields of Research

(see more @ The Visual Cognition Lab: https://www.nuritgronau.ouproj.org.il/)

Visual attention

Visual object recognition, Visual context

Visual memory

Interactions between object and numeral perception

Knowledge detection of concealed information

 

Teaching Experience

High-level Visual Cognition
Visual Attention 
Visual Memory & Semantics (advanced research seminar)
Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience
Brain and Cognition
Advanced Research Methods in Psychology